I’d confirm this with Lehigh before applying, but from what I understand, I believe they do replace loans with merit, but don’t exceed total demonstrated need.
Again I would confirm this directly, but that seems at least consistent with what I just found on their website:
Please note that students who receive merit awards but also show demonstrated financial need are eligible to receive grant money to meet, but not exceed, their calculated need.
Of course I am in no way pushing Lehigh in general.
New Hampshire also shows decently on current state, but high risk for near future changes. In calculus terms, the current value is fairly high, but the first derivative is predicted to be strongly negative.
You probably want the state to show favorably on both maps. Arizona is the opposite of New Hampshire, with a not-so-good current state, but near future changes are predicted to be more likely to be in the favorable direction.
If he likes gritty-urban, maybe Temple is worth a look too. They give some big merit awards; I’ve known several high-stat engineering students who attended there with big scholarships in the honors program, and loved it.
Seconding SUNY Buffalo, if it’s not too far, and Pitt. Pitt has rolling admissions, so an early application in August can put an acceptance in your pocket in September (although merit can take longer to come in, and you won’t know if it’s a viable option until you have that info). Stevens could be great if he loves NYC, but not sure how likely it is to make budget. NJIT has some big merit awards and also has good NYC access, in addition to having its own “urban grit” in Newark.
My bet is that he’ll end up at UMD, but I fully understand that you need backup choices he could be happy with. Good luck with the process!
Oh, wasn’t critiquing your suggestion, just thinking “out loud.” I do think it’s worth applying, but given the high sticker price, he’d need significantly more than half-tuition merit, which is less likely but not impossible. Worth a try for a small school, strong engineering, and great NYC-adjacency!
Thinking about what he likes about Rose Hulman has led me to this reflection:
He spends about equal time on soccer and robotics, but his friends all come from robotics. He doesn’t dislike the soccer kids and they work well together, and travel well together, but they aren’t the kids he hangs out with. So, a school with a lot of somewhat nerdy kids who like to make and tinker and problem solve would be a good fit.
We have a family member who went to Rose for a year. He was an avid outdoors person and felt Rose didn’t have that to offer. In addition, he felt that it was too isolated.
He transferred to University of Maine where he got his engineering degree, and was able to be a member of their outing club, and do the outdoors things he enjoyed.
Orono is a larger town than where Rose is located (probably mostly because there are a LOT more college students).
The engineering programs at U Maine are very good (says my DH the engineer, and the father of this kid, also an engineer (two different disciplines).
This is why I suggested this upstream.
I will also concur with the recommendation of University of Delaware. It’s not that far from your home, and again, well regarded engineering programs. This is a flagship U that doesn’t feel large.
In both cases, it’s my opinion that merit aid would be offered.
I think the good news is the engineering kids are like that at almost any robust engineering program. Particularly the ones who stick with the program (not all do).
I would check out Wentworth (adjacent to Northeastern in Boston) to get to that budget…great location, has a coop program. Easy to get in, solid engineering program, flies under the radar.
Umass Lowell has really solid engineering too… not sure what OOS merit is like however but obviously would be likely..
UVM/UNH/URI (or UMass Amherst/Uconn) are nice engineering programs my kids looked at, but not sure about your budget, even for high stats kid. Ditto for WPI (which I am a big fan).
I think U Maine sounds idyllic, and I have also heard it’s strong for engineering. I want to go there. But I don’t think it’s urban enough for him. Having said that, we will be in Maine at some point in the next year, so we might check it out.
Buffalo’s website indicates that they give up to full merit but their calculator, which asks for gpa and test scores, says he’d get $1,800, which is less than the CDS average. Obviously, if that’s accurate it’s off the table.